Oneshots, Prompts and Ideas
by thebrute7
Summary: A collection of one-shots and ideas.  Maybe I'll actually take one further some time.  Mostly prompts from DLP
1. One Is Going To Die

A/N - I don't own Harry Potter

This is a oneshot written for the Thank God You're Here prompt thread over at DLP.

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><p>His scar hurt. It hurt a lot. Being in the presence of Lord Voldemort would do that when you had a damned horcrux in your head. Of course the scar wasn't the only thing in pain. Oh no, the rest of his body still hurt, still spasmed occasionally from Cruciatus after Cruciatus.<p>

He could hear laughing. The cold heartless laughter of the Death Eaters who found pain and suffering to be a game. He could hear muffled sobs too, those coming from the girl standing in front of her two best friends.

Incomprehensible muttering reached his ears from Ron, who was bound just as he was, kneeling next to him in front of all the Death Eaters. Harry wondered if the torture had broken Ron. It had almost broken him.

He lifted his eyes to look at Hermione, whose scarred face looked back at him and then at Ron. She held her wand clenched tightly in her fist but was unable to move.

The sibilant hiss of Voldemort's voice permeated the room as he walked slowly to Hermione's side.

"It is time little mudblood."

Glistening tears leaked down Hermione's face. Sobs were choked back as she glanced at the Dark Lord and shuddered.

"It is your choice girl," Voldemort said. He drew a finger down the side of her face brushing away a tear. Hermione flinched away, desperate to ignore what was happening.

"One of your friends will be spared the torturous death I fully intend to give the one who remains," Voldemort explained.

They had been so foolhardy. So sure that they could win. They had destroyed the horcruxes. Voldemort was mortal, save for the one in his head. Harry knew he had to die for Voldemort to finally be defeated. So they had confronted him at Hogwarts and they had failed. They had failed everyone. Neville and Ginny and Luna, the Weasleys, McGonagall. They were all dead.

Harry locked his gaze on Hermione, silently pleading that she should spare Ron the torture as further mutters drifted from Ron's mouth. For all of Ron's faults he had been a good friend. If Harry could do it he would take the torture so his friend would be spared.

Voldemort reached over and grasped Hermione's face and jerked her head around to meet his blood-red eyes. "One of them is going to die. Acknowledge that. _Believe _in it. One of them will die. Accept it. Then make your choice."

Brown eyes, clouded by tears, jerked away from the monster and wavered between the forms of her two best friends. One of them... just one, she could spare whatever was coming. Ronald Weasley or Harry Potter. Her boyfriend or best friend. It was no real choice, they were all going to die anyway.

"Choose mudblood," Voldemort snarled. "Or you'll be the last to go. Forced to watch both of your foolish friends suffer and die before you."

Two words. Hermione raised her wand, and drew forth all of her hatred and anger and malice that she felt towards Voldemort and closed her eyes. So be it.

"Avada Kedavra."

Voldemort stared dispassionately at the scene for a moment.

"Interesting choice."


	2. When Will This End?

A/N - I don't own Harry Potter

This is a oneshot written for the Thank God You're Here prompt thread over at DLP.

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><p>He had never liked fire when he was younger. Fire destroyed. It consumed and burned indiscriminately, caring not for what was destroyed so that it could continue. The Wizarding World was like that Harry thought as he looked upon the Ministry of Magic. The pureblood aristocracy would do pay anything, do anything, kill anyone to remain in place.<p>

It is said that power corrupts. Harry kenw the truth of that. But worse than the corruption of power was the corruption of complacency. Wizards just knew that "this is how it is so this is how it must stay".

"When will this end," Harry thought. He had contemplated it many times in the last years. "Only when it is made to," was the conclusion he came to. And ultimately, it was up to him to make it so.

He stood in the Atrium of the Ministry, clad in imposing black and blood-red dragonhide and an unmistakeable aura of magic emanating from him. His gaze swept dispassionately over the burning area. A chuckle almost escaped him when he thoughht about the irony. That the very Ministry which had so much in common with flame could be so easily torn apart by it.

Clouds of smoke drifted lazily up from the burning fires, twisting randomly. Harry waved his wand and the smoke began to form shapes. A wand, a train, a gavel, a lightning bolt. The smoke writhed from shape to shape, each with a different meaning and story behind it.

"Potter!" A yell cut through the crackling of the fire causing Harry to look up. A squad of aurors swept out from deeper into the ministry. Elite aurors. Harry could tell bu the golden stripe down each of their crimson robes. There were five of them. The ministry must have been desperate to stop him if they sent so many. He noted that the minister himself had come up behind them with a sixth elite auror as a bodyguard.

Rage boiled over in Harry as he recognized the voice of the lead auror. He was sorely tempted to just start throwing curses. But held it in. He would get his revenge soon enough.

Civilians were huddled in small groups all over the atrium, and at least two groups of aurors were spread throughout; holding shielding spells around each group. They were afraid Harry would attack the ordinary wizards and witches, but Harry wasn't so far gone as that. He was here for a specific purpose.

"Throw down your wand Potter and come along peacefully," the lead auror commanded.

Harry laughed. "Come now old friend. Lower your hood. Do I not even merit a face to face talking to anymore?"

The lead auror tensed but lowered his hood. Ronald Weasley looked back at Harry with anger in his eyes.

"Drop your wand."

"Do you really think I will Ron," Harry asked.

"I doubt it."

Harry locked his eyes on Ron. "Why? Why did you do it Ron?"

"What are you talking about Potter?"

"Why did you betray her... us?" Anger blazed behind Harry's green eyes forcing Ron to take an involuntary tep backwards. "We were ready to do it Ron. You knew we were. The three of us could have rebuilt this world," Harry said, gesturing to the blazing remains of the Ministry.

Harry reached down by his feet and picked up the golden head of the wizard from the atrium statue. "The pureblood agenda was and is destroying our world." He tossed the head in the air and shattered it with a blasting curse. "We had a plan Ron. A plan to change the world and you betrayed it? Why?"

"I don't have to explain myself to you Potter," Wealey bit out.

"No. No you don't," Harry said. "After all what does it matter that you betrayed Hermione and I. But most of all her. She trusted you with the Secret. You were our Secret-Keeper and you gave us up. For what? So you could keep your job? For money and a Wizengamot seat to go along with your pureblood name?"

Ron opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by Harry.

"Don't bother. We both know that is exactly why you betrayed us." Harry's aura flared dangerously. "She died in there Ron! You arrested her, and convicted her and she DIED!"

"She was a traitor," Ron said. "A traitor and a mudblood with delusions of grandeur."

"Listen to yourself Ron," Harry snarled. "Mudblood? Have you forgotten what we spent our Hogwarts years fighting against? But you gave up the ideals we fought for in our youth. Gave up a woman you loved once."

"And as much as murdered the one I loved."

"Enough with the reminiscing," Ron commanded. "Hand over your wand." he gestured to his men to spread out. "Or we'll force you to.

"Don't you see Ron," Harry laughed. "It is time for all of this to end. I will _make _it end." Without a single pause harry whipped his wand around his body and a wave of light shot out in all directions blowing the aurors off their feet. Harry sprinted towards the stairwell deeper into the ministry, covering himself with shields.

Ending this living hell was all he had left..


	3. A Future Obscured

_A/N - I do not own Harry Potter. You already know this._

_This is a piece I had originally intended to be a complete story. I have since decided it probably won't be, and have so moved it here. Sorry._

_**A Future Obscured**_

_**Chapter 1 – Desperate Measures**_

**HP**

It was October 31st, 2021. With hardly a sound a man and woman dressed in imposing black and crimson dragon-hide apparated into a field in Wiltshire. The sun was setting in the west, casting rays of sunlight through and onto the stone monoliths that stood about two hundred and fifty meters ahead of the pair. The sight of Stonehenge against the backdrop of the setting sun and orange clouds was impressive, but the witch and wizard were not there for sightseeing. Quite to the contrary.

The witch waved her wand and after a moment nodded to her companion, who cast a silent spell on a small silver token he held in his hand, etching two letters into the metal.

Over eighty miles away, in a spacious underground hideout hidden with the Fidelius Charm, just over fifty men and women in royal blue robes saw the letters appear on their own tokens. With pops and cracks they all disapparated to their predetermined locations around Stonehenge and began to set up for the battle ahead.

Inside the circle of monoliths, the man ran a hand through his messy black hair, exposing the lightning-bolt scar that was once his claim to fame as he followed his oldest, closest, and last true companion to the center of the stone ring.

Spreading out a large roll of parchment onto the grass, the woman kneeled and touched her wand to the parchment. She spoke briefly in a long dead language that reverberated in Harry's ears.

"Reveal the Secret of Time." Lines of ink faded in on the parchment and writhed into clusters of runic symbols. Brushing a lock of hair out of her face, Hermione looked up at Harry seeking assurance in his eyes. They had both done this many times as they put together their plans. Were they doing the right thing? Was it better to do the wrong thing and have tried than to do nothing?

Without speaking, Harry conveyed a surety of purpose that he didn't truly feel to his partner before withdrawing his own piece of smaller parchment from his pocket.

"Warding of Atlantis' Spires show yourself," Harry commanded in the same language.

Ancient Atlantean. It was a language that so far as he knew only three living people could speak. Those being himself, Hermione and Voldemort. He was fairly certain that Dumbledore and the Flamels might have known it also, but they were long dead, lost to the beginnings of a war that still plagued the world.

Just as on Hermione's parchment, rune clusters appeared on the paper, diagramming the ward he was to set up. He reached into a magically expanded pocket and began pulling out shrunken ward-stones that he would set in a specific pattern around the site to create the defences that would be necessary to protect them during the ritual.

Harry heard the sound of approaching footsteps long before any normal human would have due to his senses, enhanced by extensive Blood Magics, which were far greater than those of people who would not delve so deep into the Dark Arts. Only two had willingly followed him so far, one was working not twenty meters away, preparing runes all over the great monoliths of Stonehenge. Her assistance had meant and done so much for him over the course of the war and now the rebellion.

Harry's eyes clouded with pain and grief even after all the years as he remembered the other. He could still recall vividly the careful work of etching the blood runes onto each other's bodies. The pain and all that went with it was shared between them more noticeably than with Hermione. A single tear dropped from his right eye as he remembered proposing, just weeks before she was so violently taken from his life. Her loss that sent him even deeper into the darkest of magics than before.

He felt a wave of sorrow and understanding wash over him and he glanced back at Hermione. The magic they shared let them project emotions and even thoughts to each other, but they could sometimes feel each other unconsciously when one or the other of them was feeling intense emotion.

Out of the corner of his eye recognized the approaching figure as Dennis Creevey. He wiped the tear from his face and stood to greet the current leader of the Resistance. Harry had given up that role over sixteen years ago years ago and was glad he did not have to deal with it any longer, although he still worked closely with them.

"Harry."

"Dennis," Harry replied. "Is the Resistance ready? I have only to set one more rune cluster in place."

"We are. You do realize that we won't be able to assist you? We will almost certainly be forced to retreat leaving you two alone."

Harry smiled sadly. Dennis' concern was appreciated, but he and Hermione had made their choice. "I know my friend," he said, clapping him on the back. "We'll do our part. Just hold on as long as you can. 'Til midnight, remember?"

"We'll handle it. The plan is sound."

"_Hermione, is the ritual prepared," _Harry projected.

"_I am putting the final touches on the Cage. We can begin in five minutes."_

"Five minutes," Harry relayed to Dennis. "Give 'em hell for us."

"We will."

As Creevey turned to walk away he looked back at Harry and offered up the Resistance's creed. "For the Greater Good."

"For the Greater Good," Harry repeated, placing the final ward-stone in place.

As soon as Hermione gave him the go ahead he touched his wand to the control-stone and with a brilliant flash of light a transparent dome with a slightly reflective sheen appeared around Stonehenge.

Just as the sun had passed fully into the west and the darkness was complete the first sounds of apparition carried to Harry and Hermione, standing together in the center of Stonehenge. With only the briefest of hesitations, they began the ritual that would hopefully be the end of Voldemort, his regime, and the everything he had caused since his resurrection 26 years ago.

**HP**

Though midnight was fast approaching, Stonehenge was brightly lit. Flickering lights from the atlantean rune schemes flooded the area around Stonehenge for over three hundred meters with rainbow hues. Spellfire dashed itself up against the ward which guarded the most wanted pair of fugitives in magical Europe, and their ritual which was coming to a close.

Beads of sweat dripped down Harry's face as he paced around the inner edge of the ward, watching for an opening to exploit. The atlantean ward allowed spellfire out from anyone keyed into the wards, which was the only reason the ward had held for so long. He flicked his wand and a slash of blue magic rushed out towards a pair of Death Eaters who easily dodged the attack and returned with curses that were easily stopped.

The Death Eaters had quickly learned not to get too close to the ward after Hermione incinerated half a dozen at once with Fiendfyre. "Brilliant, but scary" was how Ron had described her once, and nothing could have been more true of her after the Second Battle of Hogwarts...

_The sounds of fighting echoed down the corridors of Hogwarts._

"_Confringo," Harry yelled as he threw himself behind a suit of armor. He dashed out and fired off a pair of Severing Curses as he tried to advance down the hallway. At the other end five of Voldemort's soldiers sent volleys of Cruciatus Curses and other deadly spells back, intent on slaughtering the castle's defenders._

_A jet of blood-red light sped by him and struck one of the Death Eaters who began retching and vomiting blood. A quick glance back showed that Luna had followed him down this corridor and he was grateful for the assistance._

"_Fulmo." Lightning crackled as it leaped from Harry's wand and into a Death Eater who found himself instantly electrocuted. With teamwork born of constant practice Luna and Harry made their way towards the Great Hall, where they had moved all the students and adults in the castle who could not or would not fight._

_They found themselves sprinting out of a side passage and into a nightmare. A mere four defenders remained behind the fortifications they had set up in the Enttry Hall, firing spells at the Death Eaters who assailed them from three sides._

_Even as Harry and Luna moved to assist, one of the defenders raised her wand in desperation._

"_Fiendfyre!" Hermione's voice rang out in the hall. A jet of deep crimson flame rushed from her wand and into the shape of a dragon. Dark fire lunged forward eagerly, consuming the nearest Death Eaters. The heat from the hellfire could be felt even from Harry and Luna's distance, and after a moment of shock the pair added their own spells to the mix, picking off the panicking Death Eaters. _

_One of Voldemort's lieutenants yelled something which he couldn't hear and the Death Eater's near him rushed to get closer as he shouted an incantation of his own. A torrent of water appeared around the Death Eaters as Hermione's flames assaulted them. The two spells met and steam suddenly began to fill the room._

"_Avada Kedavra." A jet of green light flashed from Harry's wand and toward the Death Eater who had cast the spell, striking him dead instantly. With his death, the water he had conjured was bereft of any control, and the water became a veritable storm crushing the fiendfyre out of existence and ripping the Death Eaters who were once protected by it to shreds. It was over in but a moment, but the devastation remained. _

_Harry and Luna ran quickly to the barricade to be sure everyone was alright, but Ron, Ginny and Susan stood off to one side,staring at Hermione with fear in their eyes. Hermione simply stood, her wand held limply in her hand as her gaze roamed over the devastation caused by her spell._

"_We need to go," Harry said. "We have to drive the last of the Death Eaters out of the castle." He and Luna had already started moving to one of the stairwells. "Hurry Hermione. Hermione?"_

_Hermione slowly raised her eyes to meet Harry's. Pain, remorse, disgust, and more showed in her eyes as she nodded silently to him and followed without a word._

**HP**

A tightly packed group of Death Eaters provided a beautiful target as Harry unleashed a trio of Killing Curses which felled two of the attackers. Even as he raised his wand to unleash a further barrage of spells a sense of urgency washed over him.

"_It's time Harry."_

He lowered his wand and ran towards the center of Stonehenge where a silver and gold cage of magic rose up out of the ground. He stepped into his side of the cage and Hermione stepped into hers, and they once again raised their voices in the tongue of Atlantis.

"POTTER!" A cold hissing voice echoed over Stonhenge. Neither Harry nor Hermione stopped their chant, but Harry could feel the sudden onset of Voldemort's power tearing at the wards. And they could both feel the tremor of fear that fell over them both.

Green and brown eyes sought comfort in each other, but the fear that they might fail was overwhelming. The final chant finished, they stepped closer together, a mere arms-length apart, and raised their wands. A single rune flashed in between them, the rune of Time, which rotated ever more slowly. When it stopped it would be time for the final step of the ritual.

Harry tore his eyes from the rotating rune and took a sudden step forward, cupping Hermione's face in his hands and capturing her lips. For one brief moment they shared a kiss and time seemed to stop before Harry pulled back grudgingly and took his place once more, wand raised and pointed at Hermione's heart.

The rune of Time slowed and the shield flickered.

The rune stopped moving.

The shield fell.

Three voices called out an incantation as one.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"


End file.
